Rester
by Cali the Little Calico Kitten
Summary: Post 3x06. Hannibal's feelings and actions with regards to Will Graham did not often follow his normal instincts or logic; consequences of love, as he knew, did not create an exception, not even for Hannibal Lecter. Or, Hannibal escapes from Mason's capture, frees Will, and carries him to safety.


**So this is a thing I wrote that I wish will happen in 3x07.**

 **Inspired by this tumblr post that suggested Hannibal would carry Will out of their capture and carry him bridal style like Clarice:**

 **/post/123741695528/wait-ok-wait-wait-hold-the-wank-for-a-moment-i**

 **And yes, before you ask, they are naked in the first part of his because that's how Mason tied them up. That's a minor detail.**

 **So warnings for violence that typically occurs in the show, but not in much detail, including blood, pigs eating people, mention of cannibalism, Hannibal and Will tied up/reference to to torture(?), Hannibal Lecter existing, past violence, etc.**

As Hannibal Lecter watched Mason Verger be torn apart and eaten by the aggressive pigs that he had bred for that specific purpose, he felt no sense of victory or satisfaction. Instead he felt distaste, and a bit disappointed. Mason Verger, Hannibal thought, and he reasoned many other would agree, certainly deserved more suffering than this. The man was vile and rude, more so than any others Hannibal had had at his own dinner table, but Mason was less than them even, not deserving of Hannibal's usual treatment. He had tried to kill Hannibal twice now, in addition to Will the second time. He felt nothing but hatred and disgust from the man, and he felt a bit bad for the pigs, who surely deserved a better meal than Mason Verger. At least they also were enjoying a few of Mason's men, who Hannibal had to throw in with him. At least some sense of irony could be gathered from the situation, as Mason had intended to feed him to the very same pigs a while ago.

Hannibal could only faintly hear the clicking of Margot Verger's heels on the barn floor over Mason's screams. He studied her reaction closely as she walked over to the railing to study her brother's suffering, a blank expression on her face.

Her eyes turned to his face. "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again," she said.

Hannibal continued to study her, considering his words carefully. "I apologize for taking that opportunity away from you, it was not preferable, but rather necessary given recent circumstances."

Margot nodded. "It is alright, I have already gotten what I needed from him." She focused again on the pigs as they finish tearing her brother apart. "I was going to have him locked up for killing you, but… this outcome will do. Perhaps it is better this way. A world without my brother in it is certainly not a worse one."

Hannibal did not question her words. "I hope you succeed in attaining an heir. You will run the estate much better than him." The words were not a lie; Hannibal had sincerely wanted to help Margot. Those plans had merely been superseded by other issues. He decided that she did not need to be dealt with. She was of no threat to him.

Margot's eyes sought out the unconscious form of Alana Bloom on a chair in the corner of the room.

"She is merely unconscious. She will wake up in a few hours," Hannibal reassured. It brought him no joy to have to disable Alana for the second time now, but she would have only gotten in the way.

Margot's jaw clenched slightly, but she faced him again. "I have called the police. They will be here soon."

Hannibal figured as much, and he nodded. "Of course. Pardon me then, I must hurry."

He moved to walk away when she held her jacket out to him. "It may take up to an hour or even more, the police station is very far from here. I apologize for you and your friend's… accommodations," she told him, and pointed behind them, "Will is in the adjacent barn."

Hannibal took the jacket offered to him. "Thank you."

The two shared a final look of acceptance before Hannibal quickly dashed out of the barn, his leg still aching with every step since his fight with Jack, and the breeze cold as ice to Hannibal's still naked body, Margot's small jacket doing little to protect him as he held it against his front. He pulled open the door to the other barn with considerable strength, and he found none of Mason's men in sight.

Will was there though, tied up like an animal in a similar manner to the way that Hannibal was, except a mixture of dried and fresh blood dotted his face and all around his exposed body. It stretched back to his incident with Chiyoh and the train, the bullet wound in his shoulder, Hannibal's own sawing of his head, and recent damage a la Mason Verger. Will was unconscious perhaps, or not aware because his breath was rugged but continuous, and he was unresponsive to Hannibal's hand waving in his face.

Seeing Will in that state caused anger for Mason to once again flare in Hannibal's mind, but he pushed the useless emotion down, and bent down to cut Will's restraints.

Hannibal grabbed Will's sides gently as he fell out of the restraints, feeling the man's ragged gasps against his shoulder as he brought Will down safely.

"Hann—" Will slurred, seemingly regaining some consciousness and writhing slightly in Hannibal's grasp.

"Shh," Hannibal soothed, stroking the back of Will's hair gently, "It's alright, Will, I won't hurt you. Mason is dead."

Hannibal moved Will's head back slowly to see his eyes stare back at Hannibal distantly, not indicating whether he believed Hannibal or if he was even able to understand the words. Hannibal moved his finger to gently prod the still bloody wound on Will's forehead where the saw had cut. Will breathed sharply in pain at the touch, but Hannibal found that the wound was not deep. It would leave a nasty scar, but that was the extent of the permanent damage.

The relief that Hannibal felt washing over him was so strong that it caused him to freeze for a second. He would be surprised at that, since he had been intending to kill Will when he had sawed, but he had learned that his feelings and actions with regards to Will Graham did not often follow his normal instincts or logic; consequences of love, as he knew, did not create an exception, not even for Hannibal Lecter. Instead, he resumed his quick inspection of the damage done to Will, none of it fatal, but surely painful and debilitating him for the moment. Will shivered against Hannibal in the cold.

"You'll be alright," Hannibal assured, wrapping Will with Margot's jacket to cover as much of his body as possible.

Will stayed silent as Hannibal maneuvered his arms underneath him and lifted the younger man up into his arms with considerable effort. Hannibal stood up carrying Will and moved his arms to hold the jacket in place and push Will's face into his chest, making the man as covered and warm as possible.

Will curled into Hannibal's body heat and pushed his face further into his chest as Hannibal stepped out of the barn and into the cold breeze.

With every step to from the barns to the Verger Mansion, the cold seemed to amplify and Hannibal's bare feet almost became numb with every step on the cold, and damp grass, Will's body against his chest the only warmth. He grunted in pain as his injured leg protested walking quickly.

When Hannibal finally walked them inside the building, he shouldered open the nearest bedroom, a large and luxurious one that he had no time to admire; it had been 15 minutes, 20 even since Hannibal had last spoken to Margot.

Hannibal immediately walked over to the bed, gently laying Will out over it, his injured leg starting to feel a sense of relief, and tucking layers of covers around him.

"I'll be right back," he told Will, and walked over to a closet, tearing it open, and reaching for the first pair of pants and a white button-up shirt that he could reach, hastily dressing himself, and grabbing another set for Will. He had little time, but it would not bode well for his dignity, and warmth, to become Hannibal the Cannibal, arrested wearing absolutely nothing with the profiler who tried to catch him, also naked and bleeding.

He then barged into the adjoining expansive bathroom, acquiring various towels and dampening them, bandages from a first-aid kit, and an added bonus of finding Mason's pain killers in the medicine cabinet. He popped a few into his own mouth and returned to Will, whose eyes looked up at him blankly from his cocoon in the blankets.

Hannibal poured a glass of water from the bedside table and put the glass up to Will's lips, allowing him to drink, before taking out the pills for Will. "You'll feel better," Hannibal answered to Will's greyish-blue eyes staring up at him widely, and he accepted, downing the pills with more water.

Hannibal removed the covers from Will briefly, and careful not to press on any injury, he lifted Will's legs and dressed him in the extra pair of pants, and then he draped the covers back over the lower part of Will.

Will spoke for the first time since they had been captured when Hannibal began to press a damp cloth to clean the cut on his forehead.

"Hannibal," he said.

"Hello, Will," Hannibal replied, "Do you remember where we are?" Will flinched slightly as Hannibal prodded the injury.

"I remember…" Will's voice is rough and uncertain, "I remember you cutting open my head in Florence…" Hannibal took out a bandage and started to wrap it around the side of Will's forehead. "…. Then I blacked out and I remember waking up in the Verger's farm, and then… you—you cut me free and carried me…"

"Yes," Hannibal agreed, working to clean Will's gunshot wound on his shoulder that had been exposed again. "Mason Verger is dead now, and we are in his Mansion. Margot called the police, and they could be here any minute now."

Will was silent again for a moment while Hannibal cleaned the blood away from the wound.

"Aren't you…" Will began after that, shifting under Hannibal's attention. "You're not…" he tried again, "Are you not going to leave?"

Hannibal paused and looked into Will's inquisitive gaze. "No," he answered, "I'm not leaving."

Will's brows furrowed and he licked his lips. "They—you'll be arrested."

It was a statement of the obvious. Hannibal had been preparing for his incarceration for a long time now. The thought was not new to him. "Yes," he replied simply, returning his gaze to patching up Will's wounds. "I have accepted that fate for a while now."

They return to silence again as Hannibal finished cleaning the small cuts scattered throughout Will's chest. He discarded the now bloody towel and retrieved a smaller cloth. He leaned over Will and pressed it lightly to a cut on his cheek, and he noticed Will's eyes searching for his again.

"Hannibal," he repeated quietly.

"Yes, Will?" Hannibal obeyed his silent request, looking at Will.

Will said nothing to that, but his arm reached up to grasp onto Hannibal's shirt, and his eyes pleaded.

"You won't be arrested, Will," Hannibal said anyways, finishing the cleaning of his face. "There is nothing concrete on you, and Jack will protect you… and I will have my memory palace, as I've told you."

All of Will's wounds finally tended to, Hannibal put down the cloth, releasing himself from Will's grasp. Then, Hannibal returned to the bed, perching on the side near Will's head. "They'll take you to the emergency room when they get here, but you're fine for now."

Hannibal looked at Will's face softly for a moment, noting its curves and shape. That was the one thing that he had not been able to prepare before his impending capture. He wanted to be able to see Will's face permanently in the back of his mind, and he memorized the way he looked now, looking up at Hannibal expectantly.

Hannibal stroked the side of Will's face in an attempt to alleviate the impending separation. "This is the last time we may see each other for a while." _I'm curious whether either of us can survive separation._ Will's previous words wondered into Hannibal's thoughts then and the corner of his lips tugged upwards in a slight smile.

"I'll miss you, my dear Will." Hannibal leaned over him to press a feather-light kiss to the top of Will's head that was not covered in the bandage, and he started to hear sirens emerging from the quiet.

He moved to stand from the bed as they grew louder, but he has stopped by Will abruptly sitting up in the bed and grapping tightly onto Hannibal's arm.

"You should lie down until the medics get here," Hannibal said, and Will kissed him.

Hannibal had to put a hand out on the side of the bed to keep from falling as Will's arms wrapped around his shoulders and brought him in closer. When he was steady, Hannibal responded to Will's desperate clinging, and cupped a hand around Will's head, tilting his head and kissing back with equal eagerness. Will still tasted faintly of blood, but he was warm now from the thick covers of the bed, and he also tasted like the smell of Will Graham.

With the sirens and shouting in the background looming over them, they grasped at each other tightly, pulling each other closer and kissing fervently.

They parted for breath as Hannibal heard shouting from outside the door, and he closed his eyes as his forehead rested against Will's. He placed a final and gentle kiss against Will's lips, and Will squeezed his fingers.

"Goodbye, Will."

As Hannibal reluctantly extracted himself from Will's grip and stole glance into his expressive gaze that conveyed his sadness and acceptance, the door to the bedroom was thrown open loudly, and Hannibal was no longer certain that he was prepared for his fate.

 **So, that was more sad than I expected but oh well. I hope you enjoyed, I've never written Hannibal before but it accidentally took over my life.**

 **The title is apparently French for "stay", but let me know if I screwed that up, I speak no French at all.**

 **And please remember that in the USA Hannibal Airs on Saturday now starting with 3x07.**

 **Please tweet #NakamaForever and #Hannibal with the Fannibals on 7/18/2015 starting at 9 pm EST! We must #SaveHannibal and never lose hope! Do not tweet #NakamaForever until then for trending!**

 **More info and mad libs:**

 **post/124087889549/scheduling-60-minutes-of-hannibal-tweets-the-fun**


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